woman – In these time women were not received well and their testimony wasn’t worth much in court. Even after Wilson attesting that her children were killed by her lover who did not have the strength to man up and accept his responisbility no one would take her word for it without hard evidence. Instead they considered her the guilty party before going into trial and were determined to not be convinced otherwise.
trial – Now in our times every man is supposed to receive a fair and speedy trial. This law wasn’t practiced back in the days when Wilson lived. Often times many people went into trial already knowing based on their gender, status, and race what the verdict and sentence would be. This proves to be the case of Wilson.
repentance – Repentance exists in Wilson’s narrative but its not direct. It comes from a sorrow from a mother who has lost her children and can’t get them back. Her pain is taken as regret by those who view it from outside of the cell bars while she serves out her prison sentence, and thus to them it seems as if she is guilty and only telling a different story to get out of her punishment.